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$16m bill for govt cervical cancer bungle

Taxpayers will cough up more than $16 million for the federal government's bungling of the rollout of a new test said to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer by 30 per cent.

Federal health department boss Martin Bowles has revealed officials have known since before Christmas there was a risk the May 1 deadline for the rollout of the new test would not be met.

But the delay was only revealed last week by a leaked department communique with the new test now set to be available from December 1.

From May 1, the two-yearly pap test was supposed to be replaced by an improved five-yearly cervical screening test administered by one national register, along with the bowel cancer screening program.

Australia's chief medical officer Brendan Murphy revealed to a parliamentary committee on Wednesday taxpayers will spend more than $16.5 million on emergency measures put in place to ensure women can still be tested until December.

That includes a $3 million compensation payment to pathologists to retain staff who would have been redeployed or let go from May 1.

Pathology providers have agreed to continue testing in exchange for the government boosting the Medicare rebate for pap smears from $19 to $28.

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The ThinPrep pap test, which women previously paid for out of pocket, will be added to Medicare, with taxpayers footing the $36 fee.

Prof Murphy insists ThinPrep would have been listed under the new regime but used at a much smaller volume.

There's also additional costs to maintain the old bowel cancer screening register in the interim.

In an embarrassing backdown, Mr Bowles was forced to admit attempts to blame the delay on Labor were untrue, given the legislation was passed two weeks before the October 30 deadline.

He said combining state and territory registers into one had proved more complex than initially thought.

"Hindsight is a wonderful thing," he told the hearing.

"(The deadline) was too tight to meet with all the complexities that we had to deal with."

Mr Bowles insists the decision to delay the test was only made last week.

He defended the decision to give the $220 million contract for the register to Telstra Health, accepting the department was partly to blame for the delay.

Asked whether Telstra would be penalised under the contract for missing the deadline, Mr Bowles said it would "depend on the circumstances".

Opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King labelled the government's handling of the matter an "absolute disgrace".

"I am absolutely appalled that the Turnbull government knew back in December that the National Cancer Screening Register would be delayed and didn't show women the respect to inform them," she told AAP.

"After paying $220 million to Telstra, the delay is now going to cost taxpayers around $20 million more - imagine what that money could do for something like gynaecological research."